‬Joan Miró’s “Peinture (Étoile Bleue)” to lead Sotheby’s London auction June 19, estimated to bring £15m-£20m. “[This is] one of Miró’s most important paintings, effortlessly bridging the transition between figurative and abstract art,” says Helena Newman of Sotheby’s Europe.
Anthony McCall, You and I Horizontal, (2006), installation view at Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne, (2006). Photo: Blaise Adilon. All images via Hamburger Bahnhof.
Five Minutes of Pure Sculpture, Anthony McCall’s largest museum exhibition to date is on now at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof. McCall’s solid light films, such as Line Describing a Cone, from the 1970s established the artist’s reputation as being part of the cinematic avant-garde. After a break of twenty years, McCall began making films again in 2003, utilizing new technologies, like digital projection. The current exhibition consists of seven such projections; five single projections and two double projections, and of these three are horizontal while four are vertical.
The WSJ reviews art dealer Michael Findlay’s book “The Value of Art” and his critical views on commoditization: “One of the signs of a decaying culture is a reverence for form over content,” he writes.
‬Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to collaborate with Hermès for new collection of scarves, featuring patterns from his photography exhibition “Colors of Shadow”.
‬Yayoi Kusama’s traveling exhibition to make its final stop at the Whitney on July 2. “This survey celebrates a career of exceptional duration and distinction, tracing the development of Kusama into one of the most respected and influential artists of her time.”
‬A new interview with artist and social activist Ai Wei Wei highlights his continued conflict with the Chinese government: ““It has never been important to stay, until now”, “I never really think I have done too much. I just gave one person’s opinion and I tried to be calm and I never did anything to hurt anyone”.
NY Times reports on the theories and paradoxes behind the value of art “Art is often valuable precisely because it isn’t a sensible way to make money.”
George Condo‘s cover art for Kanye West‘s new single “Cold” released.
‬Christie’s to offer the “The Lock” by John Constable, expected to sell at £20 million to £25 million, at its Old Master & British Paintings Evening Auction in London on July 3rd. “This superb landscape…is sure to attract bidding from museums and collectors from all over the world,” says Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Europe.
New York-based artist Hanna Liden’s show Ghost Town is on now at Maccarone Gallery in the West Village. The show features mixed media sculptures, installations, and photographs; most of which represent Liden’s recent work steeped in a visual language specific to downtown Manhattan. However, three photographs of a female Greco-Roman style sculpture belong to a previous body of work that Liden has been waiting to showcase. These photos, with the close-up of the engraved graffiti on the body of the sculpture, are imbued with the same urban specific aesthetics that comprise the rest of the show.
‬Larry Gagosian enlists architect Annabelle Selldorf to help open a café including new gallery space at his flagship Gagosian Gallery on 980 Madison Avenue.
Jackson Pollock’s “Mural on Indian Red Ground” valued at $250 million, has returned to the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art after being detained (in transit from Tokyo) at Iran customs due to outstanding debt by the Culture Ministry.
Robert Wilson, Video Portraits (2007). All photos by Ryann Donnelly for Art Observed.
Short films by avant-garde theater director and visual artist, Robert Wilson are on view in New York’s Times Square every night through May 31, from 11:57 pm until the stroke of midnight. Wilson’s 2007 series, Video Portraits, fuses time-based cinematography with the decisive moment of a still photograph, capturing subjects such as Robert Downey Jr., Issabella Rosselini, Johnny Depp, and Macaulay Culkin.
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‬Nine artworks donated to the Tate, including pieces by David Hockney, Lucian Freud, and Jacob Epstein, “[this gift] greatly enriched the national collection of art”, says director Sir Nicholas Serota
The Dia Art Foundation hires architect Roger Duffy to construct its new Chelsea home, “We want to make sure that 22nd Street will re-engage with new generations of artists,” says Dia’s director Philippe Vergne.
‬Forbes writes on Ukraine’s shift from its Soviet past towards a landscape more conducive to contemporary art thanks to such endeavors as the First Kiev International Biennale and the Pinchuk Art Center, now featuring a solo exhibition by Anish Kapoor.
‪‬A taxidermied bull and cockerel by Damien Hirst—aptly titled ‘Cock and Bull’—is installed four meters above Mark Hix’s new east London restaurant, Tramshed, which serves a simple menu of mainly steak and chicken
‬The FT covers Michael Peppiatt’s new book featuring interviews with artists such as Francis Bacon, Claes Oldenburg, and Frank Auerbach, “I [want] to pin experience down before it disappears,” stated Auerbach in an excerpt. A conjoint exhibition of his work and that of Peppiatt’s other subjects will open in London this June.
‬Photos of Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with artist Yayoi Kusama released, showing a line of dresses and shoes patterned by her signature polka dots.
Helmut Lang, Untitled (2012). All photos on site for Art Observed by Ryann Donnelly.
Helmut Lang: Sculptures is on view at 24 Washington Square North in New York City. Co-curated by Mark Fletcher and Neville Wakefield, it is the first exhibition to be shown at the townhouse turned art space, and Lang’s third solo show since exiting the fashion world in 2005. Last year, Lang’s process of reidentifying as a visual artist saw his shredding of nearly 6,000 objects from his former label’s archive for an exhibition at East Hampton’s Fireplace Project. Following that drastic, and literal destruction of his past, Lang’s new work emerges as a recontexualized exploration of his complex aesthetic.
Sarah Lucas, Situation Make Love (2012), installation view. All images copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London.
As the art world begins to reassess the YBA (Young British Artists) legacy with Damien Hirst’s current retrospective at Tate Modern and the Hayward Gallery’s look at Tracey Emin last year, Sarah Lucas proves that the movement’s original experimental fervor is still alive and well. Lucas will curate four shows over the course of 2012 for Sadie Coles HQ’s new space, Situation, on New Burlington Place in London. The artist brings together her old and new works in combination with the art of other intimate compatriots, including that of her partner, Julian Simmons. The gallery has already hosted two Situation shows this year, ‘Miss Jumbo Savaloy’ and ‘Make Love,’ which highlight Lucas’s command of everyday materials, like concrete, pantyhose, coat hangers and light bulbs. Lucas will direct related programming to coincide with the exhibitions throughout the year. Sadie Coles will publish a catalogue documenting Lucas’ work from 2005 to the present, entitled After 2005, Before 2012, picking up where her current catalogue raisonné leaves off.
Ari Marcopoulos, 1.2065 (Cairo) (2012). All images via Marlborough Gallery.
Through the use of simple, repetitive processes and equipment, Ari Marcopoulos creates sparse yet complexly layered works that break down the perceived economic barriers of art production, with a vague smack of the political. His current show of new work, Wherever you go at Marlborough Chelsea, continues this tradition, exhibiting a number of prints, photographs and video using simple methods and techniques to create impressively vocal pieces. Using simple handheld cameras, Marcopoulos photographs his subjects in candid, neutral poses, then passes the images through several stages of printing onto rice paper, creating dense, complexly shaded images with their own created narratives.
Ari Marcopoulos, City Riders (2012)
‪‬19 contemporary high-value works, including ‘Flowers’ by Andy Warhol, have been stolen from a Detroit collector in the Corktown neighborhood of the city
